System and method for tracking people

Abstract

The system and method for tracking people provides for the tracking of individuals in large crowds, such as the tracking of individual pilgrims during the Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca. A polling request is initially transmitted from a tracking station to a mobile device associated with a particular person of interest. Upon receipt of the polling request, a location signal is transmitted back to the tracking station. The location signal includes positional and time data representative of the location of the mobile device at the time of transmission. Additionally, a supplemental location signal is also transmitted to the tracking station, the supplemental location signal being representative of the location of the mobile device when the mobile device is detected within proximity of a fixed sensor. A visual display image of the path of the person of interest is then displayed at the tracking station overlaid on a geographic map.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION[0001]This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12 / 970,714, filed Dec. 16, 2010.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]1. Field of the Invention[0003]The present invention relates to monitoring and tracking, and particularly to a system and method for tracking people in large crowds, such as during the Hajj pilgrimage.[0004]2. Description of the Related Art[0005]The Hajj is a pilgrimage to Mecca to be performed at least once in a Muslim's lifetime. The Hajj is performed within a six-day period each year within designated boundaries inside the city of Mecca. Over 2.5 million pilgrims visit Mecca each year, the pilgrims all congregating within a relatively small region. An additional 4 million visitors come to Mecca at other times of the year. During this time, a number of visitors to Mecca are, instead, attempting to obtain employment and stay in Saudi Arabia illegally. Due to the overwhelming crowd visiting Mecca d...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

Due to the overwhelming crowd visiting Mecca during this time, it is nearly impossible to regulate all of the visitors to prevent acts of illegal immigration.

Although visual tracking, the use of checkpoints, increased numbers of police officers and officials, and other conventional crowd control methods are presently used, the sheer number of visitors to Mecca within such a small region makes such supervision relatively ineffective.

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